[Osmf-talk] OSMF Articles of Association - Discussion on Revision for 2013 AGM

[Simon Poole]

Dear OSMF Members

The boards intends to propose a number of amendments to the current
Articles of Association at this years AGM which is likely to take place
at SOTM 2013 in Birmingham. The need for change has been long recognized
and in 2011 a working group spent a significant amount of time
discussing  the issues. Like so many things the activity fell dormant
during the "hot" phase of the licence change and has been revived now. 
>From a procedural point of view the board felt that we should achieve
consensus on the changes in general terms and then approach legal
counsel to produce concrete new legal text for the AoAs and only have
limited review of the results.

Given that we will want a final new AoA text lastest beginning of August
and giving us 2-3 months to get such a legal text prepared, I expect
this discussion period to last maximum two months. Because of the
limited amount of time available (in OSM terms) we want to structure the
discussion a bit and try to get agreement on the non-controversial
important items first and then progress to topics that may be difficult,
keeping in mind that we may need to move such changes to a 2nd, later,
revision.

A discussion document is located here:
http://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/2013_OSMF_Articles_of_Association_Update
. With the exception of item 1 this is simply a rewording of the output
of the AoA working group. Point 8 is really pro memoria since there is
currently no concrete proposal on the table, if time permits such a
proposal could however be developed. It is likely that all changes will
be presented rolled in to one document and that at the AGM there will be
a single vote on the changes.

The current AoAs are here:
http://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Articles_of_Association

For starters I suggest that we limit the discussion to the items 1)
through 3) .

The LWG has taken ownership of this process and I'm sending this out on
behalf of of the working group. Should you have any concerns and other
comments that are not suitable for this list please address them
directly to the LWG (legal at osmfoundation.org).

Regards

Simon